Passing the Holidays
by Suchan and Twelve
Summary: Something fun I thought I might write. How Asa and Manfred spend their holidays. SLASH! There, I warned you. No flames. Fluffy, slight humour. Valentine's Day up!
1. Hallowe'en: By the Light Of Creepy Bob

Hallowe'en: By the Light Of Creepy Bob the Jack-O-Lantern

A Charlie Bone Fanfiction that once again, does _not_ actually star the boy who hears photos.

By Suchan deFamine, obsessor of ManfredxAsa slash.

One-shot. This was written after all the little kiddies had gone away with their fruit snacks. What kind of weirdoes give out fruit snacks for Halloween? We do! O.o; Anyway…

:P

We sat on the balcony, watching all the the ghosts, vampires, and princesses hop from house to house shouting, "Trick-or-treat!" with ever-growing bags of candy.

A sudden rasp from the person next to me made me jump. "I don't remember ever dressing up for this bizarre little holiday." Afterwards, he coughed and pulled another tissue from the box.

Poor Manfred. He had been hit particularly hard during this cold season. Grinning sympathetically, I replied, "I don't have to even dress up." Manfred gave me a quirk of a wry smile before resuming blowing his nose.

"But really," I continued, "what other time of year are you legally about to hang detached limbs from your rafters and let your children talk to strangers?"

"Well, if you're some psychopathic, blood-crazed murderer…"

I glared at him while he smiled defiantly, sniffling. "Legally, psychopaths should be locked up for everyone's health."

He sighed, not at me, but merely to retrieve oxygen since his nose was on the blitz. "Why did your father carve that thing anyway?"

"Carve Creepy Bob? 'Cause he's creepy."

"Which?"

"Both." I raised my eyebrows.

"'Kay." After a minute, "It looks like a psychopath murderer on crack."

But Creepy Bob glowed silently at us, grinning like a maniac on Smarties.

"This holiday's just a little bit creepy, you know?..." But the warm, germy hand clutching mine made me feel better.

"It'll be over soon enough."

Soft arms wrapped around me beneath the silken sheets. A benevolent beam of silver moonlight entered through the window and cut a zebra stripe across the room.

"G'night, Manfred."

"Good night, Asa. Happy Halloween."

I snorted, but snuggled closer. "Sure. Happy Halloween."

:P

Muah. I was planning on doing a whole series of holiday one-shots…with AsaxManfred slash. What do you think? Keep going? Let me know!


	2. Christmas: Still Unforgiven

Still Unforgiven

The second installment in the Passing the Holidays series of shorts… All Manfred x Asa slash, and you're just ever so welcome.

Author: Suchan deFamine

Short 2.

:P

"Hey! Hey! Come look at this!" A tiny hand, smothered in jelly and cracker crumbs, grabbed a larger one and dragged it towards a fish tank with four tiny goldfish in it. "That orange one's Flyer, and that one's Jill, and that one's Cocoa, and then that one's Red."

"That's nice."

"Hey, goofball, go wash up and set the table."

"Okay!" The two-year-old ran off to the hall, sliding in his socks. Manfred chuckled.

Mrs. Pike peered around the doorway. "Asa, come here, help me."

"Okay." Manfred watched him go willingly to help his mother in the kitchen, a woman's job. (AN: Suchan: MALE CHAUVINIST PIG! …Silver: ::restrains Suchan from killing Manfred before the story is over:::)

He walked to the doorway and leaned on the frame.

"You can help too, if you want, Manfred."

Asa was sorting through a box of cookie cutters while Mrs. Pike rolled out some dough.

The wolf-boy stopped and glared at Manfred. "What, too womanly for you?"

"No." Manfred sulked over to the box. He selected a tree-shaped cutter. "What's this for?"

Asa rolled his eyes.

There was a loud splash, and Mrs. Pike sighed audibly. "I'd better go check on Christian…you two can finish the cookies." She left in a hurry.

"You're not still mad at me, are you?"

"I've got a reason to still be angry. You _know_ how sensitive I am about my ears." Subconsciously, he flattened his silky, red hair over his ears. The hand stopped shoulder height as he felt gentle hands on his shoulders.

"I love your ears," Manfred murmured, tuckingAsa's hair behind his elven-like ears."I was never making fun of you."

"Then why were you smiling like that?" Asa demanded, shrugging Manfred off, re-hiding his ears. He snatched the cookie cutter from Manfred's hand and punched three trees out roughly, slapping them onto the baking sheet.

"I was just thinking about how pretty you looked."

"Don't flatter me."

"But I'm telling you the truth. That's what I _was_ thinking about."

Asa stopped. Sighed. Manfred was giving him the puppy eyes again.

"Manfred…" He grabbed the older boy and kissed him like he'd never kissed before.

"I take it I'm forgiven."

Coldly, Asa replied, "No. You had chocolate on your lips."

Manfred smiled, and stared at the icy window. "Sure. We'll go with that."

:P

End Christmas segment.

:P

So….. how was it?


	3. New Year's Eve: The Bottle

The Bottle: New Year's Eve.

The third installment of Passing the Holidays.

By Suchan deFamine, the rabid slash fan.

:P

Notes: HEY MARK OF CTOWN AND FINNIGAN IRISH. Thanks for reviewing. I love you guys. ::muah!::

:P

"Why didn't you go to that party? I know you'd much rather be out with the crowd. And you could have left me here. I'd be okay."

The sparkling grape juice bottle stood open on the glassy coffee table, cork stabbed through with a corkscrew. Asa stared over at Manfred, eyes narrowing. "That crowd? They all hate me. They barely tolerate me only if I'm with you. Especially Zelda. She sees me as this…this…" He stopped, pursed his lips, and glared at the clock, showing 11:32. "THIS OBSTACLE. Something blocking her way to you and I just KNOW she's always thinking about killing me, the way she glares at me. I bet she wishes she could really glare daggers at me. And she'd laugh too.

"Laugh, and laugh, standing over me, writhing in agony…"

"Asa, honestly."

"She does. She would. She hates me."

"The _entire world_ is not against you," Manfred sighed, pouring another glass of juice.

"Oh, sure it is."

"Just because you hate the world doesn't mean it hates you back."

"Yeah, and in twenty minutes, it's going to be a fresh new year filled with hate."

"Stop it."

Asa thrust out his lower lip and settled back into the couch cushions.

"Quit pouting, Asa. God, you have a party right here. Self-thrown pity party."

"I really hate her."

"Asa…"

"I do."

"Stop thinking about it. Go downstairs and get the bottle in the fridge. The purple glass."

"Fine." Manfred watched the wolf boy storm down the hall to the stairs. In a little while, Asa returned with a purple bottle in hand.

"It doesn't have a label. What is it?"

Manfred smirked, took the bottle as Asa fell back on the couch, watching the older boy uncork the mystery bottle. He pointed to Asa's half-full glass. "Finish that up."

Asa peered at him suspiciously. "How come?"

"You want some or not?"

"Some what?"

"This!"

"What's 'this'?"

Manfred glared. "Just—d'you want some or not?"

Asa drained his glass and set it tentatively down on the glass top of the table. "Sure…"

"Great."

:P

"Hmmmm… one min'uh left. How d'you wanna shpend the rest of the night, eh?" Asa hiccupped.

Manfred smiled at him mischievously. "Kin'a like this…" He reached over and kissed him softly.

"Hhhhhhmm…tha'worksh." He giggled.

…….

… hell yeah. Asa was so much more fun drunk.

_Fin._

MUAHAHAHA. So much fun, spending a shivery Christmas eve writing drunken slash. Fun times, I assure you.


	4. Valentine's Day: What A Stupid Holiday

St. Valentine's Day: What A Stupid Holiday...

The fourth installment in the Passing the Holidays Featurette!

NOTE: Thanks to Scap, who made me realise a serious error in currency:heart:

:P

Oh, how I hate this commercialized holiday. Whoever so much as wishes me a Happy Valentine's Day should be boiled in their own champagne and buried with a rose stem through their heart.

Silver: But uncle, you surely don't mean that. :offers a heart-shaped box of fudge:

o.o; :steals the box and hides it under her computer chair: Damn straight I do! But… this will be cute and fluffy, hopefully. LOADS of angst, we couldn't do without that, could we? MUAHAHAHA!

:P

Manfred frowned at the pink confetti raining down on him as he followed Asa through the department store, doing post-Christmas gift cards and exchanges. "What the hell is this?"

"Confetti, darling," said Asa, not missing a beat as he wove deftly through the throng of shoppers, dragging poor Manfred along with him.

"I know that." And, with a lowered voice, "Stupid holiday."

Asa stopped. "What, you don't believe in Valentine's Day?"

Manfred mumbled something, averting his eyes.

"Just like you don't believe in love, or happiness, or not being a total jerk every time you're asked to do one simple little thing." Manfred turned his gaze sharply to meet those narrowed, yellow eyes. "I thought you'd actually _want_ to spend some time together, seeing as there's no free time at school except for weekends, and that's spent doing homework."

"Sure I do. But that was uncalled for."

"Uncalled for!" Asa cried, eyes watering. "Sure, you can dump on everything I like, make fun of everything I do, but when I point out one single little weakness of yours, that _can_ be changed, you know, you go and blow up at me!" He shook out of Manfred's hand and stepped back.

"I'm going to go do my own shopping. I'll meet you in the car."

And with the mass of shoppers closing in on every side, Manfred soon lost sight of him. People gave him wary glances and one old lady clucked her tongue at him.

"What do _you_ know?" he hissed. She scuttled away. "Damn. Now what am I supposed to do?"

"Ye apologise fer bein' a bastard, that's what ye do!" Manfred turned around. Holy God. It was the fat man from the forest who talked to trees. What the fuck was he doing here?

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Exchangin' a sweater me mam got me. Doesn' quite fit 'round th' waist." He chuckled. "Go on 'n' apologise. He's probl'y jus' bein' moody, but it can't hurt."

Manfred glared at him. "You can't tell me what to do."

"Listen, boy," the man growled, "I ain' commandin' ye to do anethin'. But if ye wan' t' keep the lad, ye got t' go make amends."

Manfred continued to glare at him until the man shook his head in contempt and waddled away with a scratchy-looking grey sweater in hand. He looked odd without his musket, Manfred mused.

"Maybe I should…" He looked out of one of the huge windows overlooking the six-way stop, lights flashing and blinking. Then he saw it. Flora's Flowers. Asa loved flowers.

Manfred had secretly laughed at him for his girliness, but it was obvious what he had to do. He skirted the shoppers and ran down the escalator.

:P

The flower shop was also crammed when he got there. Manfred nearly gagged when he smelled the glut of flowery aromas that crowded the tiny room. But, searching his pockets for any amount of money, his mind chided that this was his punishment for setting Asa off like that.

"But I didn't _do_ anything," he muttered to himself, pulling a couple ofcoins out of his pocket.

"That's the trouble with women. You say the wrong thing, they go off like rockets, try and make it better, it gets worse." Manfred turned around and looked irritatedly at the guy who was talking to him.

"That's your problem." He turned back around.

"No wonder she's pissed at you, man, jeez."

"I never said it was a girl," Manfred stated, not turning around.

And there was silence for a while. "He likes flowers then?"

"Stop talking to me."

"White rose. Long stem."

Manfred turned around again. "Why?"

"My guy likes flowers too. They're supposedly like, meaning sincerity or some crap like that." The man shrugged. "Long stems are cool. More expensive, but really cool."

"And why are you telling me this?" The guy shrugged, and Manfred rolled his eyes and searched the rows of flowers for white roses.

"Just trying to help, I guess."

"This is such a stupid holiday." The man, still behind him, smirked.

"That's what got you in the dog house in the first place, isn't it?"

Manfred stared. "Thanks for the advice, but really, stop talking to me." The guy put his hands up in defense and walked away.

"Just tryin' to help…"

:P

"Just one rose, dear?"

"Yes."

The wrinkled old lady whose nametag said Flora smiled sweetly at him. "She'll be delighted. Roses are beautiful flowers. Have a nice day."

"Yeah, thanks," he said distractedly, hurrying out to the pedestrian bridge to cross the street to the department store parking lot.

:P

Manfred located his car and waited, sitting on the hood, turning the rose over in his hands. Lost in thought, he barely heard the footsteps trot up to the car. A bag was set down near his feet.

"Where'd you get that?" Manfred pointed across the way, at the flower shop, staring dejectedly at the immaculate bloom. "It's pretty. Who's it for?"

Manfred sighed. "My boyfriend. I pissed him off pretty bad…I feel bad about it. He likes flowers… I dunno if this'll make up for it, though."

"Oh, I think it will." Manfred turned and looked at Asa, beaming at him. He kissed Manfred softly on the lips. "It's perfect."

"I don't have to say Happy Valentine's Day, do I?" Asa rolled his eyes, and leaned his head on Manfred's shoulder, entwining his fingers with Manfred's, holding the rose, together.

"No, Manfred, you don't have to say it."

"Good." After a moment, "What a stupid holiday."

"Oh, for _God's sake…_ Get in the car, we're going home."

"What did I say?"

:P

It's fun getting Manfred in deep shit every five minutes. What did you think? And thank you, Finnigan Irish and Mark of Ctown for reviewing all my Children of the Red King crap. I love you two to death.

And anyone else who reviewed, I give my heartfelt thanks. :muah:

Asa: (prodding Manfred with his finger)

Manfred: Do I _HAVE_ to?

Asa: Yes. (prod)

Manfred: …guh. Happy Valentines day, everyone… holy fuck, what a stupid holiday.

Asa: (scream of rage) That's it! I'm leaving! (snatches the rose from Manfred's hand) And I'm taking this with me!

Manfred: o.o; What did I say?

Silver: You really are pretty stupid, you know. It's a wonder he still loves you. I wouldn't.

Manfred: (cries) You're so awful to me.

Silver: o.O; Erk…………Reviews? (looks on as Manfred sobs)…®Dumb bastard. I almost feel sorry for him.


End file.
